


The Imperfect Purification

by loonoosmith



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fights, Horror, M/M, Shinigami Realm, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29767449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonoosmith/pseuds/loonoosmith
Summary: An eternity in the Shinigami Realm is bleak. An eternity in the Shinigami Realm chained to L is even bleaker.
Relationships: L/Yagami Light
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	The Imperfect Purification

He was woozy from the blood loss when he suddenly felt his heart constrict. He couldn’t die. He couldn’t die now, not after everything he had done to improve it all, not after becoming god and tasting all the power life had to offer. He took a step up the stairs and felt the pain in his chest grow heavier. He couldn’t breathe, it hurt so much to breathe, yet somehow he drew up the strength to keep climbing only to collapse halfway to the top. The stairs were gritty against his cheek, and somehow that stood out more stunningly to him than the waves of pain crashing through his chest. No. He was fucking Kira. He was not going to die in some dirty industrial plaza facedown on the stairs. He was a god and  _ god’s didn’t die. _ With monumental effort that caused his whole body to spasm in pain he wrenched himself onto his back.  _ He was not going to die here goddamnit. _ He tried to push himself back to his feet but his limbs refused to work, his senses buzzing with a numbness he knew couldn’t be good. Someone would come. Someone would come. 

….

….

No one was coming.  _ L had won. _

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hello Light Yagami. You look older. Has time passed for you since my death?” Light’s mouth felt full of cotton, and his ears buzzed. Everything felt wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Where was here? Light’s eyes flew open to see a pale man uncomfortably close to his face and he jerked away as fast as possible.

His limbs worked again. Why hadn’t they worked before and-

Light looked back at the man who still stared at him, crouched oddly.

“My apologies Light, I had forgotten how little you liked me watching you sleep.”

Light saw red. For a moment, he couldn’t even speak, rage rendering him incoherent before he managed to spit out

“You!”

The man cocked his head slightly before replying in a maddening monotone. 

“Me.”

“You’re  _ dead, _ Ryuzaki.”

“My name truly is L, you know. L Lawliet. I see no reason why we should bother with false names when we are both dead.” Light stared at L uncomprehendingly.

“I’m not dead.”

“Clearly you are.”

“No, this is some sort of plot, they’ve found - they  _ think _ I’m Kira, and you never died in the first place and this is all some twisted way to try to get me to confess to a crime I didn’t commit.”

L stared at him for a moment, before turning around to leave, muttering to himself.

That was when Ryuk showed up, grinning like the ugly bastard he was. L let out a comical shriek of surprise and fell onto the ground, limbs flailing ridiculously. Light had forgotten just how much he hated every single mannerism of L’s until the idiot had turned up alive and well in front of his very own eyes. His mind whirred at a thousand miles an hour as he tried to process the situation. L was alive, probably had been alive all along, and had… faked his death rather convincingly. Had Rem betrayed him somehow? Maybe she had never been very in love with Misa at all, or had gotten over it. More likely was that she had killed Watari and disintegrated before she could kill L. L had known when Watari died; the files being deleted must have prompted him to fake his own death. Rem must have let something slip that betrayed him, the stupid Shinigami. He cursed her silently. More proof that  _ love _ was a useless emotion.

So L had… somehow faked his death. It was the only logical conclusion considering L was sitting dumbly on his ass right in front of him staring up at Ryuk. L could now see Ryuk, meaning he must have touched the Death Note,  _ his Death Note _ , somehow. That meant he knew about the fake rules. He, Light, was clearly still the rightful owner of the Death Note as he remembered being Kira. But how had L gotten his hands on his Death Note? And why go through Near-

His thoughts were cut short as Ryuk sighed heavily.

“You humans truly are very interesting indeed. I did warn you, Light Yagami, that I alone would be the one to write down your name.” He just barely held himself back from lunging forward and strangling the Shinigami. Who did he think he was, talking to Light like that right in front of L?

Light took a deep breath and forced his face to stay impassive.

“Are you a Shinigami? What’s going on?”

Ryuk stared at him silently for a moment, before the grin on his face widened grotesquely. Light couldn’t hide the disgust from his face.

“Wasn’t seeing this one, L, enough? I’d always thought you were rather intelligent. You’re  _ dead _ , Light Yagami.” Light’s brain short-circuited.

“What… no!” It was a lie, he wasn’t dead, god’s didn’t die.  _ But his heart had stopped, hadn’t it? A heart attack. _

“I warned you, Light. Ironic that  _ I’m  _ the one who killed you, Kira. A god of death killing the most prolific killer of all time. Death really is the great equalizer, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I’m…. dead?” Light looked down at his hands, both of them whole. Even his watch was intact, although he clearly remembered that Matsuda’s shot had destroyed it and the precious paper inside it. He was… he was dead. He looked up from his hands towards Ryuk, suddenly remembering the most important part.

“You lied to me!”

“Huh?” Ryuk cocked his head stupidly.

“You said that users of the Death Note could go to neither heaven nor hell. You said they didn’t exist!” Light threw his hands to the side dramatically. “Well where is this?”

“I have no idea where humans go when they die. Those that use the Death Note cannot go there, however. They come here, to the Shinigami realm.”

The Shinigami realm? Light looked at his surroundings for the first time. Stormy grey clouds stained the rocky outcropping where he and L sat. In the distance, mountains the same dusty grey color as the rest of the landscape rose high into the clouds. A deep canyon split across the land, and there seemed to be no end to the terrain. For a moment, Light made eye contact with L, who still sat in the same sprawled position he had fallen in upon Ryuk’s arrival. Light quickly looked back towards the mountains.

“The Shinigami realm, huh? I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense.” Light stood and brushed off his suit. It wasn’t dirty, but he didn’t want to betray how thrown he was by the whole… dying business.

“I can’t say I was totally unprepared for something like this to happen, although I’ll admit, it shocked me at first.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement, Kira-kun,” L muttered, shifting into his signature squat. Light’s lip curled unconciously as his eyes fell on the hunched man once more.

“But why is  _ he _ here?” 

“Not sure. Not many humans around these parts. Who cares about him? What are you going to do now that you’re dead, Light? Ready to become a Shinigami for real?”

“A Shinigami? You can do that?” Ryuk’s perpetual grin widened.

“I don’t know; I don’t think a human’s ever tried before. You’d have to ask the Shinigami King, of course. What do you say, Light. Want to become a  _ true _ Shinigami?” There was silence for a moment; even L seemed to think that Light would genuinely consider such a thing. Honestly, for two sentient beings who knew his deepest secrets, they really didn’t know him at all.

“I’m not a Shinigami, Ryuk. I would never become like you and your kind, killing randomly and without reason. I’m a human, working for the good of other humans. Do you think I became Kira because I  _ wanted _ to kill people? I am, I was, the only person good enough to do so! I’d never sink so low as to become a Shinigami,” Light spat, staring the grinning monster down. Ryuk cocked his head, as if he couldn’t work Light out.

“You never were very scared of me. Most humans would at least show a little respect to a Shinigami, but you were never even phased. I’ve always allowed you to speak so insolently to me because you were entertaining, but it seems you’ve forgotten that I  _ am  _ a god.” For the first time since that day all those years ago when Ryuk had appeared in Light’s bedroom, Light felt slightly afraid of the being before him.

“As a god, I can do things like this.” A sudden weight fell upon Light’s left hand, and he stared in horror at the handcuff that had appeared on his wrist.

“No! You can’t do this! I refuse to be chained to Ryuuzaki for a second more!” he screamed.

“The feeling is mutual,” L muttered from the other end of the chain.

“You have ceased to be entertaining. Goodbye, Light Yagami.” Ryuk stared at Light for a moment longer before taking off into the sky and flying towards the mountains.

“Wait!” Light cried desperately, running after him. L grunted as he was pulled along behind him. “You can’t leave me here with this freak. Ryuk!”

Ryuk did not turn back, but L pulled very suddenly against the chain connecting them, causing Light to fall unceremoniously onto his back. He watched helplessly as Ryuk disappeared into the distance.

“Fuck!”

He stared blankly into the horizon as the hopelessness of his situation sunk in. Chained to Ryuuzaki. For eternity. He looked down at the chain on his wrist and pulled himself into a more dignified position. L was watching him, there was no doubt about it. Probably trying to figure out how Light had died. Bastard. 

Light settled his face and turned to L. L stared back, face annoyingly impassive. Eternity. With L.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself once more.

“I believe you have already said that, Kira-kun.” Ryuk had been lying when he said hell didn’t exist. Being chained to L again? This was hell.

**Author's Note:**

> damn! i have not beta read this and i do not plan to. pls feel free to comment on any egregious mispellings or plotholes, as i'm sure there are many of them bc i haven't planned this fully out. also i went with the high honour ending of the anime bc i am a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of the foot massage scene nd i am a dirty filthy lawlight shipper nd also despite this being my SECOND death note work i STILL haven't finished the manga (although i know it ends with light writhing on the ground nd begging ryuk like the scummy little worm he is). sorry for using phrases like "Kira-kun" in 2021 but in my defense i have taken 3 duolingo japanese lessons so i think i know what im talking abt :| im so sleep deprived rn. hope this is ccohernt


End file.
